“It was just a matter of battling in the first end but I came back well. Hopefully I can play better in my next match and be a bit more clinical.

“In the last set I just focused a lot more and put into practice how I can play." Robert Davies

“In the last set I just focused a lot more and put into practice how I can play. I’ve got to take that now into my next match against Borgato.”

Sara Head struggled against Paralympic champion Anna-Carin Ahlquist losing 3-0 in the women’s singles class 3 while Sheffield’s Will Bayley also suffered an opening day 3-1 defeat to Israel Pereira Stroh of Brazil in the men’s singles class 7.

"I’ll be back stronger tomorrow." Will Bayley

Bayley said: “I still want to try and win this competition and I still believe I can win this competition and I’ll be back stronger tomorrow.

“No excuses - I just want to focus on tomorrow and put this defeat to bed because I’m already thinking about trying to win my next match.”

Ross Wilson was agonisingly close in his men’s singles class 8 table tennis match against Emil Andersson in a repeat of their London 2012 bronze medal match but lost a fifth game decider 11-8.

Wilson, who came fourth at London 2012, won the opening game 11-6 before losing the next two but managed to force a deciding game with a 11-9 in the fourth.

Wilson said: “I didn’t play too bad today and I’m still not in a bad position going into tomorrow’s match.

“I can still go through if I win my second match well so I’ve got to forget about this, relax a little bit and then go again tomorrow.”

Barnsley’s Sue Gilroy was also narrowly beaten in straight games 11-7 11-6 11-9 in her group C match against world number three Maio Zhang of China.

Each ParalympicsGB player can still progress if they win their one remaining group stage match on either Friday or Saturday.